This past week has been extremely fabulous. I had a week off of work, thanks to this lovely thing called ‘half-term’. So a girlfriend and I went to London, Bath and Cardiff for the week.
London is amazing. It is energetic and thriving and absolutely gorgeous. You really develop a fast pace in everything you do – walking, talking, eating. I love it. We did the tourist bits – Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Park (I’ve been there two separate times now and it is one of my favourite parks), the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square etc. I spent my first night alone. I was staying in a little hotel in Kensington, and the next morning I went for a 2 hour walk down the Thames. It was a nice beginning to a very busy week. Our first hostel in London - well , Greenwich actually – was 45 minutes out of the city. It was total pain to get to and from. But we were blessed with fabulous weather – cool and sunny. Perfect. We went to see a show at the Phoenix Theatre (I can’t get away from it lol) called ‘Blood Brothers’ – a musical about two twins separated at birth. I honestly wasn’t that impressed. The story had promise, but I was only impressed with one of the actors, and I felt like the songs were trying too hard to be catchy without adding to the plot line (except for the final emotional climax number). Gotta say – Belfry Theatre productions are of a way higher caliber than this one. We also met a lovely girl named Tiffany from the USA, who joined us on most of our tourist adventures. The thing I love about London is how you get out a tube station and feel like you are in a completely different city than the station you got on was. (I don’t know if that made any sense…). We were in London from Oct 22 -25.
On the 25th, we left for Bath, which was a complete change of pace. I don’t think I can describe how beautiful Bath is. The best thing I can say is look it up online! It is absolutely stunning – it is surrounded by colourful hillsides, and there is a river running through the centre. Our hostel was great – we were tucked in off a side road, so it was very quiet. On our first night, Rebecca and I just wandered around and got lost in the city. We made our way up to the Royal Crescent (PLEASE look up pictures – it’s phenomenal. Apparently Johnny Depp has a flat here), and we stopped a gentleman on the road for a history of the Crescent. He turned out to be a shareholder in the Royal Crescent Hotel (I couldn’t afford to breathe in this hotel – Bill Gates owned it up until a few years ago) and gave us a personal tour of the hotel, grounds and restaurant/spa out the back. It was one of those places where the waiter was wearing a suitcase that probably cost more than my plane ticket to England.. It was quite the experience. We also went to the Jane Austen Centre that day (love my life!). The next day we went to the Roman Baths, on a walking tour, and a lot more wandering and getting lost. We had lunch at a little café where I had the best chai tea I’ve ever had – I went back the next day and asked them to sell me some. We went for cream tea at Patisserie Valerie, and drinks at the pub that evening. Again, we met a fabulous girl named Adrienne from the US who is studying in Morocco. So cool!
The next morning, we poked around Bath Abbey and the Victoria Art Gallery and then headed off to Cardiff. We arrived in Cardiff late that afternoon, thanks to train delays, and had absolutely no energy… so we went to a movie. We had dinner at the Prince of Wales Pub, which is absolutely massive. It is a renovated theatre – the bar is under the proscenium and our seats were in the former balcony.
We only had one full day in Cardiff, so we were out of our hostel by 9am. Also, it needs to be mentioned that this hostel is the CUTEST place I’ve ever been. The bar in the hostel looks more like an eclectic tea shop – it’s full of antique furniture, candles, china, pillows… Sarah Eng, and Auntie Beth – you would have LOVED it!
We went to Cardiff Castle, which was great. The first place we walked through was a corridor that was blocked off and used as an air raid shelter during WW2. As you walk down the corridor, they play old wartime broadcasts (including the original announcement that Britain was at war), air raid sirens, bombs exploding, and music. It was incredibly haunting.
After the castle, we spent three hours in the National Museum. The museum itself was pretty average, but the art gallery upstairs was amazing! It had works from Italy, France, England, and Finland from the 1500’s onward. There were some beautiful paintings by Monet. It is definitely one of my top three favourite art galleries. After the art gallery, we headed down to the shopping on St. David Street. It is huge… I have never been to a shopping area this big. It stretches on for blocks! So we went to Starbucks (I think I went to Starbucks every day this past week – there is only one in Portsmouth and it’s nowhere near me. I’m in withdrawal), relaxed for a bit, and then burnt out shopping. Which means we went to another movie that night… we weren’t feel very original at this point.
It was an absolutely wonderful week. It was kind of crazy that we could just pop over to these amazing places at a moment’s notice – we never had a trip longer than 2 hours. It was money and time well spent!
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